The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for distribution and administration of medical services, entertainment services, electronic health records, and educational information useful in hospitals, other types of health care facilities, and patients' homes. Presently, some hospitals are automated only to the extent of storing basic patient information, such as patient's name and address, admitting doctor, type of ailment, etc., electronically in computer memory, to be accessed by administrative staff or, at nursing stations, by nurses or other medical personnel. Otherwise, much patient information is collected manually and stored on pages in the patient's file. Of interest to the present invention is our U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,079 entitled an apparatus for the distribution of movies, in which entertainment services, in the form of movies or the like, are delivered electronically in digitally compressed form from a master library to the home or other location of a customer.
Of general background interest to the present invention are the following references, namely Brimm, et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,666 (December, 1991) which describes and illustrates the data entry system intended for intensive care, with two display units at each bedside, connected to patient monitoring equipment, which system provides a file server with limited computer functions and some associated disk storage; Cummings, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,105 (April, 1994) which teaches a system for health care for patients including a method of payment for billing and a card, personal to a patient, for simple personal identification using magnetic stripe technology; Garcia U.S. Pat. No. 5,065,315 which describes and illustrates a system and method for re-scheduling and reporting patient related services in a hospital, centered on editing procedures and information for a patient and entering information pertinent to a patient's stay in a hospital, including scheduling for tests; Wilhelm U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,543 (June, 1994) directed to a system for central processing of medical records and management of work flow associated with the storing and tracking of electronic medical records based on PC workstations located at nursing stations or physician's offices and Chaco U.S. Pat. No. 5,291,399 (March, 1994) which teaches a system which distributes and processes medical information, optionally by keyboard data entry at a patient's bedside.